Nanis William

“ثلاثون عاماً من عمري دون أن أعرف الحقيقة، ودون أن أفهم الحياة، دون أن أحقق ذاتي، وكيف كنت أحققها وأنا لا أفكر إلا في أن آخذ وآخذ وتحقيق الذات لا يكون إلا بأن أعطي وأعطي، ولكن كيف كان يمكنني أن أعطي شيئاً ليس له عندي وجود ؟”
― Nawal El Saadawi, مذكرات طبيبة

“Ever since I was a child I used to hear my father say: ‘If the price we pay for freedom is high, we pay a much higher price if we accept to be slaves.”
― Nawal El Saadawi, Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

“I was like a woman walking through an enchanted world to which she does not belong. She is free to do what she wants, and free not to do it. She experi-ences the rare pleasure of having no ties with anyone, of having broken with everything, of having cut all relations with the world around her, of being completely independent and living her independence completely, of enjoying freedom from any subjection to a man, to marriage, or to love; of being divorced from all limitations whether rooted in rules and laws in time or in the universe. If the first man who comes along does not want her, she will have the next, or the one after. No need to wait any longer for just one man. No need to be sad when he does not turn up, or to expect anything and suffer when one’s hopes are razed to the ground. She no longer hopes for anything or desires anything. She no longer fears anything, for everything which can hurt her she has already undergone.”
― Nawal El-Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero

“When timeless moments solicit you, accept the invitation. Go deep within it, until you find yourself in your absence.”
― Jean Klein, I Am